The grid properties of an electric power grid particularly include the grid impedance and the grid voltage. For example, these grid properties may be estimated by a Thevenin equivalent model of the electric grid.
Thevenin's theory holds, to illustrate in DC circuit theory terms, that any linear electric network, here the electric power grid, with voltage and current sources, like generators and solar plants, and resistances can be replaced at terminals, here the point of common coupling, by an equivalent voltage source, here the grid voltage, in series connection with an equivalent resistance, here the grid impedance. The equivalent voltage is the voltage obtained at the point of common coupling in an open circuit. The equivalent resistance, here the grid impedance, is the resistance obtained at the point of common coupling with all its independent current sources open-circuited and all its independent voltage sources short-circuited.
Conventionally, the grid properties of a power grid are estimated by driving the system to different steady-state points where the current and the voltage are measured, both the amplitude and the absolute phase of both variables. One problem here is the imprecision of the measurements of the absolute phase changes between different operating points due to frequency variations. In such a case, it may be enough to have two operating points for identifying the grid model, but more points may be used to minimize the error due to measurement noise. On the other hand, the problem regarding the absolute phase changes remains.
For example, K. O. H. Pedersen, A. H. Nielsen and N. K. Poulsen describe in the article “Short-circuit impedance measurement” methods for estimating the short-circuit impedance in the power grid for various voltage levels and situations. The short-circuit impedance is measured, preferably based on naturally occurring load changes in the grid. They show that such a measurement system faces different kinds of problems at different locations in the grid. This means that the best measurement methodology changes depending on the location in the grid. Three typical examples with different measurement programs at 400 kV, 132 kV and 400 V voltage level are discussed there.